Mackay dancer flying high as Peter in Queensland Ballet

MACKAY'S own Rian Thompson premiered as not one character, but two, in Queensland Ballet's Peter Pan.

The show opened on Friday night at Brisbane's QPAC, when Thompson played Wendy's brother John, then on Saturday he was the main star - Peter himself.

Flying and childish characters are not regularly associated with Queensland Ballet productions, so Thompson said it was great to try something different.

Rian ThompsonContributed

"For this show it's been great for the dancers to all have a bit of fun, especially with the childish characters," he said.

"It's been wonderful for everyone to experience a lot of that comedy acting as well between the pirates and all the lost boys and I think for everyone not to be having to concentrate so much on classical ballet, standing up straight, everyone's able to get around and play with characters which has been a blast.

"Of course the biggest difference would be the flying we did in the show."

Thompson said for two weeks the cast learnt how to fly.

"It wasn't that scary; it was just mainly getting used to the feeling of you not being able to control what you're doing which as dancers we're very used to," he said.

"Being that we only started the flying two weeks ago there was no room for the fear; you just knew that was your rehearsal time and you just had to get on and give it a go.